LACMTA: Who says Los Angeles doesn't have a mass transit system?

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is building a 21st century system linking all of L.A. with mass transit.

In a message to the public, LACMTA said, "Visitors to Los Angeles take note: When the Metro Expo light-rail line opens April 28 it will be the first time passenger rail has traveled from downtown L.A. to the Westside since 1953, when Pacific Electric's Santa Monica Air Line was abandoned in favor of wide sweeping freeways and eight-cylinder engine cars."

When completed to Culver City by this summer, the new line will contribute 8.6 more miles to L.A. County's 79 miles of modern rail, all of it added since 1990 when the Metro Blue Line opened between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The LACMTA system currently covers 1,400 square miles of Los Angeles County. And in 2016, the Expo Line will be extended to Santa Monica, adding 6.6 more rail miles to the line and culminating at the Pacific Ocean. "Who says Los Angeles doesn't have a mass transit system?" questioned LACMTA.

Now running three light-rail lines (the Gold, Green and Blue) and two subways (the Red and Purple lines), LACMTA extends from downtown Los Angeles north to North Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, northeast to Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, east to East Los Angeles and south to Long Beach.

Also under construction and on target for a 2015 opening is the Gold Line Foothill extension that will carry the line from its current terminus in Pasadena to Azusa, an 11.5-mile segment funded by Measure R: L.A. County's half-cent sales tax for transit, passed in 2008.

The Crenshaw/LAX Line is expected to begin construction next year and will run from the Expo Line south to near LAX with a link to the airport.